Wednesday, April 11, 2012

White Dwarf Wednesday #12

April 1979 I was buried in one of the worst snow/ice storms that the midwest had ever seen. So much so that even after the Snowpocylspe of 2011 people still talk about it.

At the same time White Dwarf jumps from 28 pages to 32.

In addition to that, Issue 12 ups the quality of the cover art too.

This issue's editorial lambasts the people that photocopy games to give (or worse sell) to others. I know my first character sheet was a bad photocopy as was my first copy of White Dwarf. Sorry. I was kid. Again this could run today, just replace "photocopiers" with "scanners".

We start the issue with and expanded Fiend Factory. Future Fiend Folio alumni include, the Assassin Bug, Grell, Hook Horror, Giant Worm, and the Githyanki. We also get an Iron Pig and Desert Raider which seems to be a combination of Sand People and Freeman from Dune. Easier to see why these were not included. The stats still include the Monstermark numbers.

Lew Pulsipher gives us an article on Dungeon Equipment. Many of these should be included in any standard equipment lists to be honest. Love the idea of silver smiths silvering weapons as part of the economy and I never thought about nose plugs.

Open box gives us two classics, the Arduin Grimorie and Pellic Quest. In the big surprise of the day the Arduin Grimorie only gets a 4 out of 10 from Don Turnbull. But looking back at these I think the OSR tends look at anything from the time with rose colored glasses. I think Turnbull was more likely correct.

Bill Howard gives us a mid-level adventure for D&D in the form of "The Pool of Standing Stones". I liked the White Dwarf adventures, they seemed to be different enough from the ones in Dragon that I could ascribe a quality to them, a "White Dwarfiness" if you will.

We get some new magic items like the Sword of Thieves and Earnings of Control. We also get some corrections to the Barbarian class.

Don Turnbull looks into the new Player's Handbook for AD&D. Interestingly enough he can't find "Hobbits" in the book and never mentions Halflings.

The rest of the magazine is ads with the Gamma World ad in the back again.

White Dwarf is certainly maturing. It is more on par with the early Dragon magazines, maybe not Dragon of 1979, but certainly 1977 or 78. The amount of ads have increased to about 12-13 pages per issue. I do not know how that compares to Dragon from the time.

Quick comic recommendations and reviews
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There are a lot of really great comics out there and with the changes at
Marvel & DC there is a lot to be excited about for comic book fans.
Here are a few ...